Strategies to wear down the other party : 16 years of talking, talking
- Sangai Express Editorial :: November 05 , 2013 -

Isak Swu, Dr Manmohan Singh and Muivah :: Pix - TSE

Greater Nagalim or integration of all Naga inhabited areas under one administrative unit.

Supra State, an arrangement which comes close or a name given to the concept of Nagalim.

Alternative Arrangement pending a final settlement to the ongoing political dialogue between the NSCN (IM) and the Government of India.

The NSCN (IM) and the Naga frontal organisations have been clear, though if not entirely consistent, on its stand, while Delhi has preferred to keep mum, saying nothing more significant than recognising the ‘unique history of the Nagas’ ever since the ceasefire pact was signed on August 1, 1997.

The only exception may be the public announcement of the then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee at Kohima that the question of Naga integration will need the consensus of all the other States many years back.

A case of Delhi exhausting its political will to take the ongoing negotiations to its logical conclusion or a case of Delhi’s real politiks to exhaust the rebel group, which for all practical purposes has abandoned its days in the jungles and are now ensconced in designated camps with all the paraphernalia of the 21st century ?

The politics of peace talk can certainly be tricky and arduous. Sixteen years of the guns going silent, yet with no significant signs that the dialogue is anywhere near a final settlement and so many things can be read into this.

Is it a case of the demands being put up by the Naga rebel group crossing the line of acceptability or is it a case of Delhi adopting a wait and see policy and in the process try to wear them down ?

The line of acceptability. This is important, for in all the points or demands raised by the NSCN (IM), it is clear that the stakeholders are not only Nagaland or the Naga people, who the IM group ostensibly claims to represent, but also States like Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Assam.

Surely the politics of peace or politics of political negotiations has turned out to be more dicey and complicated than waging a bush war against the Government of India.

The journey of the Naga armed groups too has traversed different routes and strategies. The switch from an inclusive approach to an exclusivist approach is too glaring not to be missed.

In the effort to raise or give legitimacy to the idea of Naga Nationhood, the Naga armed groups adopted an inclusive approach or strategy wherein numerous smaller tribal groups were assimilated under the big Naga family.

To the credit of Messrs Th Muivah and Isak Chisi Swu this has worked for smaller groups, which hitherto had serious identity crises, which were embraced within the fold of the Naga family and are now in a position to have a collective political, social and economic voice.

Cut to the present and today it is a totally different ball game.

An exclusivist approach it is now with the collective leadership of the NSCN (IM) raising their voice exclusively for the Nagas and in the process pitching one ethnic group against the other.

A phenomenon which is very much felt in a State like Manipur, which is home to numerous communities and different ethnic groups.

Such an approach has obviously worked to the advantage of Delhi.

Different competing forces on land and resources can and is a near perfect alibi to drag on a political dialogue for years and in the process wear down the different groups.

This can be discerned in the peace pact between the NSCN (IM) and the Delhi, which dates back to August 1, 1997. Sixteen years.

To get a better understanding of the time that has passed, a child born at the time the peace pact was signed would now be in Class XI. Simple.

It is difficult to accept that Delhi has exhausted its political will to settle the issue.

Rather it could be more a case of Delhi deliberately trying to exhaust the other party.

And the exclusive approach adopted by the IM group has only helped Delhi in pursuing this policy.